Project Summary

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The biological goals for fish populations as summarized in the Klickitat Subbasin Plan (KSP 2004, p. v of the Executive Summary) are :…

To restore and maintain sustainable, naturally producing populations of spring chinook, steelhead that support tribal and non-tribal harvest and cultural and economic practices while protecting the biological integrity and the genetic diversity of the subbasin.

The larger, long-term objectives for fish and wildlife habitat are toIncrease reduced populations of native fish and wildlife to sustainable sizes• Increase quantity and quality of reduced and degraded habitat to amounts that will sustain native fish and wildlife species• Decrease fragmentation of habitat, to restore connectivity of populations and historic migration routes, within and between subbasinsThe Klickitat Subbasin Plan seeks to increase run sizes for native salmonids. While providing for artificial production as one of the strategies for increasing run sizes, the also calls for hatchery and harvest practices that do not decrease native stock fitness or adversely affect run timing. Further, to reduce adverse species interactions, the subbasin plan seeks to reduce distribution of coho within subbasin and total numbers of coho above Lyle Falls. The subbasin plan addresses strategies for habitat restoration as well, but the near term efficacy of habitat improvement strategies presents institutional and technical challenges, as noted above.

Klickitat Subbasin Anadromous Fishery Master Plan (KMP)

YKFP activities in the Klickitat subbasin consist of: monitoring and evaluation of existing production activities; research designed to evaluate and implement supplementation programs to enhance natural production; and habitat restoration and enhancement. As defined by Regional Assessment of Supplementation Project (RASP 1991), supplementation is “the use artifi¬cial propagation in an attempt to maintain or increase natural production while maintaining long-term fitness of the target population and keeping ecological and genetic impacts to non-target species within specified limits”. The Project is also designed to provide harvest opportunities.

The YKFP’s Klickitat Subbasin Anadromous Fishery Master Plan is currently under review by the Council and has been reviewed by the Independent Scientific Review Panel. The YKFP has developed the KMP to enhance sustainable and harvestable populations of salmon, steelhead and other at-risk species. The KMP reflects a combination of habitat protection and restoration and hatchery supplementation to address limiting factors (see KSP 2004, Chapter 4.7 pages 126-208 and Tables 22-26, pages 133-243). . The YKFP applies an adaptive management policy, which allows for Project objectives and strategies to change as new information becomes available from Project experiments, monitoring and evaluation, and literature reviews.

Artificial production measures, such as supplementation, are required to maintain fish runs for the foreseeable future if Treaty harvest and mitigation for lost harvest opportunities are to continue. As noted in the YKFP’s M&E proposal (Project # 199506335), supplementation is a cornerstone of efforts to rebuild salmon and steelhead runs throughout the Columbia Basin (RASP 1992; NPPC 1994; CRITFC 1995).

Previous Fiscal Years

The table below contains contracts with the following statuses:
Active, Complete, History, Issued.
* "Total Contracted Amount" column includes contracted amount from both capital and expense components of the contract.

BiOp Workgroup Comments: For compliance with RPA 50.7: This RPA action is for hatchery fish marking only. Confirm that the scope of work proposed is for 100% marking of fish (visible or non visible) from the hatchery supported. If this project is marking fish for the hatchery, please specify the hatchery name and populations affected. If marking is conducted under another project or program, please let us know the name of that project/program.

The BiOp RM&E Workgroups made the following determinations regarding the proposal's ability or need to support BiOp Research, Monitoring and Evaluation (RME) RPAs. If you have questions regarding these RPA association conclusions, please contact your BPA COTR and they will help clarify, or they will arrange further discussion with the appropriate RM&E Workgroup Leads. BiOp RPA associations for the proposed work are: ( ) All Questionable RPA Associations ( ) and All Deleted RPA Associations ()

Proponent Response:

Klickitat D&C Expense is for facility design and Klick D&C Capital is for constuction. This is a more appropriate question for the Klickitat O&M (#1997-013-35) when Klickitat Hatchery operations will cover that contract ~ 2012. Call my cell questions. Bill Sharp 509.945.3167.

Fundable in Part to complete the Step One review including revision of the Master Plan to reflect due consideration of other alternatives.

Funding is qualified, in that the completed Master Plan needs to include a "no artificial production" alternative modeled to achieve the plan's objectives for steelhead and spring Chinook in the upper Klickitat subbasin. Modeling should provide some type of evidence (model, habitat data, EDT modeling, etc.) that shows the likelihood of achieving upper Klickitat basin objectives with and without supplementation. Modeling should evaluate the potential of a passive natural rebuilding approach over an appropriate response period, perhaps 10-12 years (~ 3 generations), that if not successful could retrigger consideration of the hatchery supplementation program proposed. A habitat-based model might predict the numbers of wild recruits necessary to fully seed the upper part of the watershed - even EDT could do that and would therefore indicate whether supplementation is needed to achieve the upper basin objectives.

The ISRP is supportive of the Master Plan's vision of separating lower river fall Chinook and coho hatchery and harvest operations from the upper river rebuilding objectives for steelhead and spring Chinook.